Zoology

Is This Dingo Mother Mourning Her Dead Pup?

In recent years we’ve seen a number of animals, including elephants, giraffes and chimpanzees, “grieve” over deceased group members. But canids are notably — and surprisingly — absent from the list of mourners. For the first time, researchers have now documented a wild dingo mother showing “care-giving behavior” towards a dead pup. Is this evidence…

io9 Joseph Bennington-Castro Apr 5

Video proof that dragonflies are nature’s ninjas

This will blow your mind. A good ninja uses speed for evasion as well as pursuit. In this respect, there is perhaps no animal in the world more ninja-like than the dragonfly, as these jaw-dropping videos make abundantly clear. The dragonfly’s remarkable abilities are due in large part to its unique body plan. Unlike many…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Apr 4

How to murder someone with bananas. And also bees.

Ah, the things that science teaches us! It reveals the far reaches of the universe. It guides us toward a better understanding of ourselves and our history. And it lets you murder people with fruit, by turning into an apiary beast master. Another day, another way to use knowledge to kill, kill, kill. In this…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Mar 31

Fruit bats enjoy cunnilingus, too

You may already know that fruit bats are among the few species besides humans to engage in fellatio, but new observations confirm they practice cunnilingus, as well. And yes – there’s video evidence. Back in 2009, researchers observed extensive evidence of fellatio among short-nosed fruit bats, and concluded that in 70 percent of sexual encounters,…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 30

True facts about the naked mole rat, nature’s best impression of a scrotum with teeth

If you haven’t watched Ze Frank’s absurdly entertaining nature series, “True Facts About _______,” you owe it to yourself and those around you to take a personal day and just rip through the whole lineup, starting with this week’s installment on the naked mole rat. The NMR is a perennial favorite ’round these parts, and…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 29

This egg is worth more than your car

Up for auction next month at Christie’s South Kensington salesroom: this “very rare and complete” sub-fossilized elephant bird egg. Its estimated going price? Between $30,000 and $45,000. The famous auction house says the oversized ovum measures 12 inches long and 9 inches in diameter at its widest point, which makes sense; elephant birds – which…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 28

Sea Hare Ink Is One of Nature’s Most Unusual Bioweapons

Sea hares are known for the colorful, sticky ink they let loose when knocked around by hungry predators (or mean humans). Scientists already knew a few ways this defense helped these squishy creatures escape the dinner plate. But new research reveals another purpose to the defensive ink, and it’s unlike anything else seen in the…

io9 Joseph Bennington-Castro Mar 27

What Happened to All the Birds in the Most Recently Colonized Regions of Earth?

The numerous islands scattered throughout the Pacific Ocean comprise the last habitable region of Earth that humans colonized. Beginning about 3500 years ago, people settled the eastern islands, such as the Samoan islands, Fiji and the Marianas. By 700 years ago they made their way to the more remote locations of Hawai‛i and Rapa Nui…

io9 Joseph Bennington-Castro Mar 25

How do you give an animal an IQ test?

We humans are notorious for underestimating the intelligence of animals. As Frans de Waal writes in the Wall Street Journal, scientists have consistently botched up intelligence tests administered to animals — tests that are often human-centric and stacked unfavorably against them. Is there a better way to estimate animals’ mental capacities? Top image: An 11-year-old…

io9 George Dvorsky Mar 25

Holy sh*t, that is one enormous crocodile

This is not an ad for Toyota. It’s a photo of a 4.8-meter crocodile that was shot and killed earlier this week in the small Australian community of Palumpa. The scene was photographed by Jacob Brant, who sent the image to NT News. ABC News then confirmed its authenticity with local Wildlife Ranger Tommy Nichols,…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 22

Chimps are better at teamwork than anyone realized

Chimpanzees sometimes work together to solve problems. But scientists haven’t been sure whether chimps deliberately cooperate to reach a common goal, or accidentally do it by focusing on related tasks. Now, we have evidence that they are consciously working to form teams. This sheds light on the social behavior of chimps and humans alike. Unraveling…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 22

The science of swarms will blow your mind

Here are two things you should do immediately. One: watch this. It’s a jaw-dropping video of starlings in flight that will straight up give you chills. The swirling cloud of birds is called a “murmuration,” and it’s just one example of how animals in very large groups can engage in remarkably coordinated collective behavior. Two:…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 22

Scientists find 8 impossibly adorable new frogs in a single forest

Naturalists working in the mountainous forests of Sri Lanka’s Peak Wilderness Sanctuary have uncovered no less than eight new species of frogs, nearly all of them critically endangered. Sri Lanka is known for its amphibian diversity — with well over 100 species documented — but to find eight new species over the course of just…

io9 George Dvorsky Mar 22

Your afternoon catharsis: wet animals shaking in slow motion – for science!

Andrew Dickerson studies how wet animals shake to become dry animals. Last year, in fact, he published the results of a study that examined the wet-shakes of 33 different animals, including some intriguing findings relating shake-frequency and overall animal size. When we wrote about Dickerson’s research last August, we included a video with high speed…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 21

This human-toothed fish won’t give you nightmares, but its cousin will

This is the mouth of a sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus), a marine fish with one set of very human-looking teeth, and a whole mess of hellishly stubby, decidedly un-human-looking teeth. It is at once familiar and alien, and more than a little creepy. But it will not give you nightmares. Actually, it might. Just look at…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 21

Geneticists: Giant squid are “very weird”

The most comprehensive analysis ever conducted on giant squid DNA has cast some interesting light on these elusive deep sea cephalopods. Despite their global reach, it now appears that there is only one species of giant squid — and they’re all “basically identical.” The giant squid, Architeuthis, is one of the planet’s largest invertebrates. But…

io9 George Dvorsky Mar 20

Bat-eating spiders are everywhere (except Antarctica)

Today in nightmare fuel: scientists now believe bat-eating spiders to be more widely distributed around the globe than previously realized. According to newly published research, bat-predation by spiders has been observed on every continent on Earth — Antarctica being the sole exception. As if this video evidence that spiders can eat 18-inch-long snakes weren’t harrowing…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 18

Geneticists may have just solved a 320-year-old evolutionary mystery

The Falkland Islands wolf is a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a tawny fur coat. For starters, it’s not even a wolf (more on that in a minute); but far stranger is the fact that, when it was first encountered on the South American archipelago for which it’s named, it was literally the…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 6

The incredible story of how scientists finally found a giant squid

Edith Widder was one of the marine biologists who, last year, successfully filmed a giant squid living in its natural habitat. In this captivating TED Talk, Widder recounts details of the expedition (all 400+ hours of it), squid summits, and optical luring — a key insight that made it possible to film this deep-sea beastie…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 5

Watch this lizard shoot a five-foot stream of blood from its freaking eyeballs

Yes, blood. Blood out the eyes. It’s a display that’s as impressive as it is shocking — in a last-ditch effort to ward off predators, several species of horned lizards will increase the blood pressure in vessels surrounding their eyes, to the point that they actually rupture, gushing five-foot fountains of hemoglobin at the faces…

io9 Robbie Gonzalez Mar 4

Is This Dingo Mother Mourning Her Dead Pup?

Video proof that dragonflies are nature’s ninjas

How to murder someone with bananas. And also bees.

Fruit bats enjoy cunnilingus, too

True facts about the naked mole rat, nature’s best impression of a scrotum with teeth

This egg is worth more than your car

Sea Hare Ink Is One of Nature’s Most Unusual Bioweapons

What Happened to All the Birds in the Most Recently Colonized Regions of Earth?

How do you give an animal an IQ test?

Holy sh*t, that is one enormous crocodile

Chimps are better at teamwork than anyone realized

The science of swarms will blow your mind

Scientists find 8 impossibly adorable new frogs in a single forest

Your afternoon catharsis: wet animals shaking in slow motion – for science!

This human-toothed fish won’t give you nightmares, but its cousin will

Geneticists: Giant squid are “very weird”

Bat-eating spiders are everywhere (except Antarctica)

Geneticists may have just solved a 320-year-old evolutionary mystery

The incredible story of how scientists finally found a giant squid

Watch this lizard shoot a five-foot stream of blood from its freaking eyeballs

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